Changing the save directory for Ezvid using symbolic links.

Anyone using Ezvid, a free screen capture and editing tool for Windows, has probably noticed that the options available are severely lacking. As of Version 0.9.1.1, there is no way to change the default capture/project save directory. All of the temporary files are stored on your boot drive by default (My Documents\ezvid) which severely limits your recording space and time. Those of us using a relatively small SSD for their boot drive and a huge secondary storage drive will find the lack of this setting aggravating – I know I did. Even Ezvid’s own support team acknowledged this shortcoming a few months ago, but there is still no built-in option for it. Notice how I said “built-in option?” But, it is a free application, it looks good, and it gets the job done.

Hard Symbolic Links
Soft symbolic links are basically shortcuts – like the ones you create when right-clicking a file or folder in Windows and selecting Create Shortcut. These links redirect you to the source file or folder. For our purpose, however, we need to use hard symbolic links – links that act as the source and do not redirect you.

Creating a Hard Symbolic Link
Unfortunately, creating a hard symbolic link is not a standard option in Windows Explorer’s right-click menu. But, if you are even remotely familiar with the Command Prompt, it’s a piece of cake. First, launch the Command Prompt as an Administrator (right-click menu, “Run As Administrator…”). The pattern for creating a hard symbolic link is below:

mklink /J "link location" "source location"

Pretty straightforward. The command is “mklink” which makes the link. The first parameter to mklink is “/J” which says “make a hard symbolic link.” The second and third parameters are the location where this hard symbolic link will live and the actual (source) location where the link points to.

Fooling Ezvid
For our purposes, the “link_location” parameter is the path to the “ezvid” folder inside your My Documents folder (mine is “C:\Users\Evan Mulawski\My Documents\ezvid\”). The “source_location” parameter is the path where you want it to be (i.e. a folder on your secondary hard drive). If you want to save anything from Ezvid (captures, projects), copy the contents of the ezvid folder to the new location (I will be using “F:\Screen Recordings\” for my new destination). When you are ready, make sure Ezvid is closed and delete the entire ezvid folder (if Windows says you can’t because it’s in use, log off and log back in to release the handle and then delete it). In the Command Prompt, type:

Remember to replace my paths with yours and make sure they are correct. Then, press Enter. If you do not receive an error message, you’re done – close the Command Prompt and launch Ezvid. If you do receive an error message, you either didn’t delete the ezvid folder or the “source location” doesn’t exist.

After launching Ezvid, open both locations (link and source) to confirm that they contain the same data. That’s it.